UU Church - become a part of the community

We have recently returned to the church we went to before Jamie. (BJ) It's a Unitarian Universalist who believe all religions have part of the truth and no religion has all of the truth. Since I am such a 'on the other hand' type of thinker this is the perfect environment for me, and Mike loves it too.

We started back because Jamie started asking to go to church. She goes to a Catholic Daycare and they talk about church alot in there apparently.

Anyway we are trying to embrace the congregation, as the pastor is leaving in June. If we aren't connected to folks in the congregation we won't continue to go. This pastor has been preaching that the last several sermons we have attended and it makes sense.

I have met one lady who quilts which I have always wanted to learn to do. She is even offering me one of her extra sewing machines. Last night we went to a chili cookofff that had line dancing. I am not a fan of line dancing, but Jamie loved it. There were four other little girls there and they danced together and ripped and roared all night. (Jamie came home and vomited all over the bed afterwards though)

I have met another couple who have SLR cameras which I am in the process of buying right now. (My buying process is a bit longer than most folks).

We hope to put in more effort so we can become more a part of the church community this time, then we can't just drift away...

Doctor Doctor

I have doctor appts every week, last week, this week and next and the week after. Today I scheduled an allergist appt for July. I gotta get a handle on what is causing my health concerns. I have gone through several bags of cough drops and have to use a narcotic cough medicine to sleep at night.

I still am relying on the nebulizer at least a few times a day.

Geesh, if all of this is from allergies, I could just get shots each week...and I hear I would need to go to the doctor to get them. But if its a pulmonary issue it could be worse..

Enough of this subject, sorry for the health whining post.

Going to Hell to Play Euchre I hope

Maybe I will get to play Euchre! While we are in Michigan at the lake cottage that is.

We are staying pretty close to Hell...yes an actual town called Hell MI. I have been there before for a Euchre night one night when I was visiting my dad. Euchre is a little known but a lot of fun card game that it seems only those from Michigan and Ohio know about. You use 9's - Aces only and it involves trump and bidding a bit like spades or pinochle. I really miss the game, I just might have to sneak away and go play. They have these Euchre 'Tournaments' in small bars up there. I dont know why they are called tournaments, you just pay like $4 and you play 10 rounds. If you are in the top three you get some kind of money prize. Typically they are played in bars although I have played them in Elks clubs as well. In that club the prize was meat. Hahaha. First through 10th prize got a raw slab of meat. A butcher sponsored that game. ahhh, good times.

Sunday Blues times three or Crabby Mommy

I have been absolutely crabby today. It looks like my baby doesn't want to nap anymore, but I sure do. For the second day this weekend Jamie refused to nap. While I was napping...Mike left for Home Depot so Jamie begged to come in and 'nap' with me. Not what I call napping...'Boing boing Boing' Mommy can I have a lollipop, Mommy where's daddy...and so on. So up we got.

We tried the pool but it was barely 80 degrees, and I just didnt want to stay in that water. She stayed in for a bit then we went to the screened porch. She wanted to swing, but crabby mommy didnt want to. So I lowered the swing so she could get herself in and out and perhaps get the swing moving. She started crying hysterically! I don't want my swing so little! I want it big again! Crabby mommy found that absolutely hysterical and started laughing. Jamie didn't find it so funny, she charged at me, her fists pounding. Hmmmm, such a lovely holiday.

Taking a chance

The cottage we are wanting to rent requires a $500 deposit. She hasn't emailed me the contract yet, but I can't help thinking all the risk is on our end. If she had been listed in my favorite vacation rent site VRBO there would be a guarantee of some sort. But I went off elsewhere on the internet when none of the available cottages had the wifi and the dates I wanted.

I found her on a little obscure site called rentalbug - I think she is for real but you never know. Someone could just fish for deposits over the internet...

I asked my dad to go by there and check it out, its about 20 minutes from his house. At first he said he would, but he left a message yesterday saying he didn't want to try, that he was afraid he would get lost.

That made me sad...my dad is an old man now. He used to love to drive up around the lakes in that area exploring...I was hoping he would come visit us there and we would have a couple nights with him out by the lake. I guess not...

Private Pooper

One of my favorite bloggers Lisa was blogging on the subject of bathroom habits among married couple and whether you could do #2 in front of your spouse. It reminded me of this time Mike and I were looking for a new house back in '99 before we found this house we live in. One of the houses we looked at had almost everything we wanted, a pool in the backyard, a separate living and family room and 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms...sort of.

In the master bedroom they had torn down a wall between the toilet and the bedroom so the throne was out in the open over towards the corner of the bedroom. The realtor said they were opening up the space of the room and said "Isn't it romantic?" Ummmm ...NO! It isn't. No way no how will I ever be pooping in the same room as my husband or really anyone except my daughter come to think of it. Anyway that led us to our little family joke. We both need a private pooper, while we were househunting whenever we found a house that the master had a toilet stall separate from the bathing and sink area, we would whisper to each other "Private Pooper!"

Hmmm, maybe you had to be there. But can you imagine:





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Cottage Bound!

We are going to go to Michigan to visit my dad and other relatives this summer. As he smokes inside his house and I have been struggling with my asthma/bronchitus, staying with him isn't really an option. When I was a girl we had a couple 'up north cottages' we stayed at some summers in Michigan. The one on a lake with a rowboat was a favorite. We stayed there when I was 13, 14 and 15. I would take that rowboat into town (usually with my brother) and in that little town there was an arcade - can you say pinball wizard. The lady that ran the arcade liked me and let me watch it a couple of times. Boy was that the life for a 14 yr old!!

Anyway I thought it would be alot nicer to stay somewhere; rather than relative hop or stay in a hotel. The hotel would be $100/nite, so why not spring for a cottage on a lake? It includes everything and it even has Wifi!! I don't have it firmed up, but this is the one we hope to stay in. This is the view from inside look at that pretty lake view! It is only 15 minutes or so from my dad's house so that is a big plus too. I am hoping to take almost 3 wks off from work, I turned in the paperwork and haven't heard otherwise, so I am getting really excited.

Voicemail shortcuts!!

"Your car warranty is about to expire..."

"We are calling to remind you about the blah blah blah meeting, Doctor Appt. etc."

"Hi, did you know that as a voter you..."

I a so sick of my home voicemail I was seriously considering dropping it. I have a phone at work I have to check and respond to, a blackberry at work and a cell phone. By the time I get home the last thing I want to do is check the home messages, specially when so many of them are lame. I would much rather you continue to call me than to leave me a message on my home phone. If you can't get me at home, try my cell, or if it's during the week call me on my work line or cell phone. I told Mike I was considering dropping the voice mail part of our home service, but he wouldn't have it. He promised to take the responsibility to check the home messages every night, but neglects to do so....

So, yesterday after listening to several messages some of which I don't know how long were on there as there is no way to know when you haven't listened to your messages every day, I thought to myself, there has to be an easier way! Why ish't there more options in voice mail, like why cant you delete message, right when you hear it, why do you have to listen to the entire message, and if you miss the phone number, why can't you just listen to the part you missed?!?!

Soooo, I did what any modern internet user would do, I did a search for 'Voicemail shortcuts, and found this list on this wonderful gentlemen's blog:

During the Message
77 - quick erase
# - skip, no end-of-msg options
1 - rewind 10 secs
11 - rewind to start
2 - pause/restart
3 - forward 10 secs
33 - skip to end
4 - slower
6 - faster
8 - vol to normal
9 - louder


At End of Message
7 - erase
# - skip, no end-of-msg options
9 - save
5 - msg date/time
4 - replay

Hope you may find some of these options helpful, it works on AT&T home and wireless, and may work on others as well. I am going to check into whether it works on Verizon this week.

Let me know if they work with your systems if you have another company.

Happy messaging!

I have over 72,000 Reward Points! Guess what I am getting

THis is the Canon Rebel - one of the 2 entry level digital SLR cameras I have been coveting. Today while checking my reward points on one of my Chase credit cards that was about to expire I noticed the other credit card we use all the time has over 72,000 reward points. Guess what you get for each 10,000 worth of points? $100 gift card from Best Buy. The camera package is $749 and that includes the body, (which has a built in flash; and two lens one 18-55 and the other 70-300 as well as a case and charger. I have been wanting one of these since Jamie was a baby and I realized that a digital point and shoot is never fast enough to get the shot. I am so excited.

Mike can be a bit pessimistic, he thinks it's too good to be true, he thinks Best Buy won't let us use 7 gift cards for the purchase. I say they will. I guess I will call and make sure tomorrow before I order the 7 gift cards.

I want it anyway, now it is so close I can taste it.

Hooray for my new follower!

Thanks Moneek, I know you don't read all the time, but you have been following me just about since I started this blog so it's great that you became official. Sometimes I think I am blathering away to nobody but I know I have a few readers and that makes me happy for some reason.

I am still sick, I have 2 ear infections and a sinus infection. They are sending me to a pulmonary guy but I can't get in until June. Meanwhile they changed my inhaler to Advair as I seemed to have become dependent on the steroid shots I have gotten 6-7 times since Christmas and I guess Advair has some kind of steroids in it. Yup it apprears I am a steroid user. And that isn't good, it can lead to bone loss.

Ok Ok enough about boring health concerns. Suffice it to say I am still coughing myself into a frenzy several times daily.

Today all three of us went into the pool for the first time this year. Not for long, after dinner we went out there and vaccuumed the pool, watered and planted some flowers and then went for a dip. I even got in the Hottub for a quick soak. Ahhhhh, felt so good.

We are thinking about moving back to the beach where we used to live. We moved out away from the beach shortly after we got married in 1999 in order to get more house for the money. Wish we would have bitten the bullet and gotten something beachside back then. Now to do it we are looking at homes for 300k to get what we want - at least 2000 sf, a pool and a garage are musts. I would also like a kitchen that you can see into the family room from this time- a more open floor plan.

So we are going to get some work done around the old homestead. Have the screened porch polished and painted, and the rotten wood replaced on the shed and also get a new roof. Then we may also get new cupboards and counter tops in the kitchen and have teh living room and dining room and halls repainted. Our ceiling stretches to 20 feet on one side of the living room and hall so there is no way we will be doing it ourself.

So now, not just spring cleaning, spring cleanout!

More about why we are considering a move later. Thanks for reading.

Sick again but not the swine

I dont' know why I keep getting sick, this is the fifth time since Christmas.
Maybe we ran too hard last weekend? Jamie's school had a really cool carnival, with slides bouncy houses, pony rides and a ferris wheel for kids with cages around the seat. Also a great rummage sale. We got a fold up bed for $6; a southern belle dress with a big hoop for Jamie for $1; and lots of softwear for kids - fun game style learning for .50 each. After the carnival we went over to some friends for lunch and a swim in their heated pool. Then on Sunday morning we went to church for the first time in eons; Jamie really loved it. Anyway maybe I ran too hard? I am good for nothing today.

Look at this horsey her Aunt Chris gave her, Jamie loves it she carries it everywhere even bed!



Sne loves big dresses!


This is the pony she rode, his name is Mikey. He was the smallest one and very cute.

And this is her almost pony friend Dakota and Aunt Patty's cleavage